'Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn' Episode Five review

The penultimate episode of Forward Unto Dawn saw the surviving students attempt to escape a Corbulo Academy of Military Science in the midst of a Covenant invasion, a feat made a little easier thanks to the timely appearance of Master Chief. Unfortunately, chapter four also spelled the end of Chen and Vickers, and finished with Lasky and co shooting their way out of the Academy and into a working Warthog, hopefully filled with enough petrol to get them to safety.

The fifth and final episode sees our band of survivors battling Covenant invaders in the dead of the night as they attempt to escape the doomed planet. Here's hoping Lasky's unlucky streak holds out until morning.

Episode five begins on-board the Forward Unto Dawn spaceship, introducing Cortana in the flesh (so to speak) for the very first time. With Master Chief kicking Covenant butt at the Academy, what could this possibly mean?

We're soon jolted back into the action, as Lasky, Silva, Sullivan, Orenski and Master Chief are shown ignoring Academy speed limits in a bid to escape heavily armed hostiles who are firing at them from the woods. Silva once again shows her soldiering credentials, picking off Covenant grunts like they're noobs in a deathmatch.

With the threat evaded, Lasky attempts to score points with Silva, and possibly a second date, by congratulating her on her shooting - big mistake. If they were on board the Millennium Falcon, Han Solo would have reprimanded them for cockiness, and rightly so, because Lasky's brown-nosing leads to a crash with a few miles to go before the evac point.

If that wasn't bad enough, a hulking great Covenant shows up just as we find out that Silva's been wounded. With no Biofoam left (they literally just used the last of it on Sullivan), things aren't looking good for the former Narnia princess, as Lasky's unlucky streak continues.

With Master Chief off battling the Covenant, the remaining survivors move Silva to a clearing in the woods, essentially to say their goodbyes. An emotional Lasky takes her dog tags, just before she slips away, never to respawn again. No doubt Lasky will be adding Silva home movies to his depressing DVD collection.

With Master Chief back with the group and low on ammo, another one of those big Covenant invaders shows up - we're not sure how Master Chief dealt with the last one, but it took a lot of bullets apparently.

This is the moment when Lasky decides to man up once and for all, volunteering himself as a decoy in a move that will give Master Chief enough time to get in close and stick a grenade where the sun doesn't shine. Lasky's bravery is inspiring, and all it took was the destruction of the Academy, the death of his entire family, all of his friends and his girlfriend. A hero indeed.

With Lasky barely avoiding the first laser blast and with Master Chief swatted away like a fly, survival is looking less and less likely for the group. Lasky soldiers on, however, ducking and dodging his way through the woods before taking the brunt of an explosive laser shot.

Fortunately, Master Chief uses the opening to heroically shove a grenade deep into the flesh of the giant Covenant - in slow motion, no less. Undoubtedly the highlight of the episode, the survivors, who are now covered in alien guts, are picked up by the Pelican and flown away to safety.

The action suddenly shifts to the present day, and we discover that the bald bloke from the beginning of the very first episode is actually an older Lasky, who is now the commander of the UNSC Infinity - yep, the one in Halo 4's multiplayer.

It's also revealed that he was the one who picked up the Forward Unto Dawn distress signal, and is searching endlessly in space for signs of his mentor.

And he'd better hurry up too, because it appears as though Cortana is planning on waking Master Chief from his slumber, a move we suspect will lead to an encounter with a new enemy on November 6. Now it's starting to make sense.

Forward Unto Dawn was a slow starter, spending far too much time reinforcing Lasky's position as a troubled young man who had suffered personal losses. Just as we were growing tired of Forward Unto Dawn's heavy-handed approach to characterisation, the Covenant showed up, which is when the series started to show its strengths.

The action sequences involving the alien invaders were very well made, and we particularly liked the way the series tied in to next week's Halo 4 release. Ultimately, after a less than impressive start, Forward Unto Dawn has got us excited about the new Halo, which was always its intention.